Most modern file systems use a bitmap to explicitly track the free space left on a flash medium. Often this bit map is part of an allocation table maintained in a volatile memory device such some type of random access memory. The bitmap is a simple data structure whereby a single bit is used to indicate if a particular physical sector is free or not. As the user creates and deletes files, directories, and performs other file related tasks over the lifetime of the file system, the file system updates this bitmap accordingly. The problem with this approach is that it tends to require a tremendous amount of memory space and is slower than desired when attempts are made to access information from the bit map.